Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral TherapyHelping Children & Families Heal in the Aftermath of Trauma

Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), developed by
Co-Director Esther Deblinger, PhD, in collaboration
with Drs. Judith Cohen and Anthony Mannarino,
is an empirically supported treatment
model that has been evaluated and refined
over the past 18 years to help children
overcome trauma related to abuse, violence
and grief. This treatment approach has
been recognized by the federal government’s
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration as a model program due to
the extensive outcome data supporting its
effectiveness. While TF-CBT was primarily
developed for addressing the needs of children
who have suffered sexual abuse, the model
has been adapted for use with children who have
suffered a variety of traumatic experiences,
such as physical abuse, exposure to domestic
violence and traumatic grief.

The goals of this treatment model for children who have suffered traumatic events include:

• Teaching children and their non-offending caregivers adaptive coping skills

• Assisting children to emotionally and cognitively process their traumatic experiences

• Reducing the emotional and behavioral reactions exhibited by children

• Facilitating children's adjustment to placement when needed

• Assisting non-offending caregivers in responding to their child's reactions as well as helping them cope with their own feelings related to the trauma(s)

• Working with caregivers and children in joint sessions to improve interaction, enhance communication and practice personal safety skills to help reduce the risk of future victimization

TF-CBT can effectively
address a child’s anxiety, depression and behavioral difficulties in 12-16 sessions, and the model can be used in both individual and group therapy formats. Treatment generally consists of parallel sessions with children and their non-offending caregiver(s), as well as joint caregiver-child sessions in the later stages of therapy. Research
has documented that this treatment model effectively helps children
and adolescents (ages 3 to 18) overcome post traumatic stress disorder,
depression and feelings of shame as well as other behavioral and
emotional difficulties.

More information about TF-CBT as well as on-line brief introductory training
for
mental
health
clinicians is available at www.musc.edu/tfcbt.